Up Periscope Yellow: The Making of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine

by Al Brodax

Al Brodax was the producer and co-author of the ground-breaking animated film, Yellow Submarine . In this book he recalls a frenzied, madcap escapade that came to be reflected in an enduring piece of screen history. In addition to Al and The Beatles, the “cast” included more than a dozen animators, platoons of inkers, background artists, soundmen, cameramen, and various essential expediters. They produced, aside from the film, more than a dozen pregnancies and one or two marriages. This generously illustrated book is a special gift to fans of the Beatles, of Yellow Submarine and of spirited, flavorful writing about movies. (267 pages, 8″ x 9.33″)

278 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Raja99 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled across this at Half-Price Books a few weeks ago and was very happy to pick it up; I really loved the movie Yellow Submarine when I was a kid, and this gives producer Al Brodax's memoirs about the making of the film.

The book was a little disappointing to me. It's like the saying that it's not such a good idea to see how people make sausage (or laws). Brodax and company came off of their popular (but not critical) success with the Beatles Saturday morning cartoon series and decided to try something a whole lot more ambitious; this book tells the harrowing story of how the movie got made.

It's very possible that my disappointment with the book is because Brodax's job is my worst nightmare: spending hour after hour in meetings with the various people (and groups) who paid for and made the movie—over the course of several years. On the plus side, Brodax seems to be frank about the merits and limitations of everyone involved, including himself. On the minus side, there are a number of distracting typos throughout, and some aspects seem suspiciously anachronistic (the book was published in 2004, some 40 years after the events described). Overall, though, it's a very nice, and rather moving, story with some heartbreaking and triumphant turns.

(Finished 2008-02-13 03:54 mountain time.)

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want this book to be so much better than it is and thought it would be for the first 40 or 50 pages. Here are just some of the problems I soon noticed.

Brodax settles scores with everyone who annoyed him during the making of this picture and even some people from before. I am sure this seems justified to him, but I suspect there are other sides to many of the scores settled, and this suggests there are other sides of the story that should be told.

Most people do not know that book contracts have a specified number of words that must be delivered for publication. This is to keep an author from turning in a manuscript of 30 words or 2 million, lengths that would be unpublishable. This book reads as if Brodax told the story from the beginning then realized he was approaching his word count and so rushed the story after that, at least that is how it reads. There are regular updates throughout the book telling us what his superiors thought of the film at various steps along the way, but in the rush at the end we have no idea what they thought of the finished film, something that structurally needs to be covered. We do not know if Brodax screened the film before its premiere. You would think he must have, but he does not say that he did, and if he didn't, why didn't he? He tells us what the Beatles thought of the project as it was being made, but what did they think of the finished film? I could add to these deficits, but won't.

There is also a problem with extraneous information: a lot of stories and incidents are told, sometimes at length, that do not contribute to a reader's understanding of how this film came to be made. Some of the missing information mentioned in the previous paragraph would have room to be told if Brodax had been more disciplined when writing. Look, I enjoyed the book anyway, but it should have been so much better.

[Googoogjoob · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of good stuff in here- information you won't find anywhere else, as Brodax was producer of the film in question, and the preceding animated series. But he's all over the place as a writer, it's an uneven read, and he could've greatly benefited from a ghostwriter or an editor with a firmer hand. He bounces between topics in a way that on the one hand feels natural (it does in fact feel like a motormouth movie producer is spinning all this stuff out to you), and on the other is often confusing; he makes a bunch of little errors of fact or chronology that a good proofreader could've caught.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started reading this as we are immersed in all things Yellow Submarine in preparation for a 7-year old's birthday party. Only got as far as page 50 and just cannot continue. Written not in chronological order, or seemingly any order. Some of the recollections do not ring true. Awful writing.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't read this if you want details about the fabs involvement. As it is told by the producer, he naturally is the main character. A fill in the gaps type of book for beatlemaniacs or animation buffs only.

[Jen McP]

Written by my friend's Dad, I cannot WAIT to read this!